Splunk Search

How to use rex in searchTemplate while creating forms

Anvita
Explorer

How to use rex in searchTemplate while form creation? When i try to use following search using rex, it gives me "Invalid xml" error.

<row>
    <single>
      <title>Total Logged in users across all states</title>      
      <searchTemplate> sourcetype=test1 "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/*/home;sid=" | rex "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/(?<statename>.*)/home" |  eval state=upper(statename) | lookup state_abbr state AS state OUTPUTNEW name AS name  | eval State=upper(name) | stats dc(sid) AS "Logged in Users"  by State </searchTemplate>
    </single>
</row>

statename is a dynamic variable I am creating which will be then applied on lookup to retrieve actual state name as data contains only the abbreviations of states(statename is abbreviation and name is actual state in lookup file). When I use it in search, it performs well but when used in form's searchTemplate, it throws an error.

Tags (1)
1 Solution

ziegfried
Influencer

You have to either escape the XML characters (<=&lt; >=&gt; &=&amp;) within you search:

  <searchTemplate> sourcetype=test1 "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/*/home;sid=" | rex "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/(?&lt;statename&gt;.*)/home" |  eval state=upper(statename) | lookup state_abbr state AS state OUTPUTNEW name AS name  | eval State=upper(name) | stats dc(sid) AS "Logged in Users"  by State </searchTemplate>

or put it into CDATA:

  <searchTemplate><![CDATA[ sourcetype=test1 "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/*/home;sid=" | rex "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/(?<statename>.*)/home" |  eval state=upper(statename) | lookup state_abbr state AS state OUTPUTNEW name AS name  | eval State=upper(name) | stats dc(sid) AS "Logged in Users"  by State ]]></searchTemplate>

View solution in original post

ziegfried
Influencer

You have to either escape the XML characters (<=&lt; >=&gt; &=&amp;) within you search:

  <searchTemplate> sourcetype=test1 "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/*/home;sid=" | rex "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/(?&lt;statename&gt;.*)/home" |  eval state=upper(statename) | lookup state_abbr state AS state OUTPUTNEW name AS name  | eval State=upper(name) | stats dc(sid) AS "Logged in Users"  by State </searchTemplate>

or put it into CDATA:

  <searchTemplate><![CDATA[ sourcetype=test1 "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/*/home;sid=" | rex "https://test1.com:999/t2/t3/(?<statename>.*)/home" |  eval state=upper(statename) | lookup state_abbr state AS state OUTPUTNEW name AS name  | eval State=upper(name) | stats dc(sid) AS "Logged in Users"  by State ]]></searchTemplate>

Anvita
Explorer

Thank you so much ziegfried... It really works...

0 Karma
Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

New in Splunk Observability Cloud: Automated Archiving for Unused Metrics

Automated Archival is a new capability within Metrics Management; which is a robust usage & cost optimization ...

Calling All Security Pros: Ready to Race Through Boston?

Hey Splunkers, .conf25 is heading to Boston and we’re kicking things off with something bold, competitive, and ...

What's New in Splunk Observability - July 2025

What’s New?  We are excited to announce the latest enhancements to Splunk Observability Cloud as well as what ...